Midterm Essay
Aidan Marquardt
English I
There are a varying amount of types of discrimination in the world, but one that has recently become more well known is classism and discrimination or unfair treatment based solely off of one's economic position or social class. Classism is something that affects all people in our culture no matter what social class you are in. Whether or not you are on the negative or positive end of classism, almost all people in a society with established social groups are impacted by it. It is important to me because I think that it is ridiculous to be discriminated and demeaned simply based off of one’s social status. It is especially relevant to youth specifically, because many younger people have not developed a full understanding of money, and it is much easier for groups of younger people to discriminate against others that are different than them. However, classism occurs at all age levels and through all members of society in some form or another.
One of the largest forms that classism appears in, is the education system in America. Many people struggle around the world with finding adequate education, but in America, it is thought that everyone has equal access to public schooling. This is not always the case because in many places the education that is received in lower income areas is nowhere near the same as places that generally have a higher level of income. As far as college is concerned, the difference between getting into a state or community college is much different than getting into somewhere like Yale or Harvard. Anya Kamenetz, the author of several books about education, published an article about how elite colleges keep underprivileged kids from attending them. In it she states “Take two 18-year-olds with equally stellar academic abilities. One comes from the socioeconomic bottom and one from the top. That lower-income student is one-third as likely to enroll in a selective college.” While the education standards are much higher, this article discusses how classism can come into effect when viewing colleges and the selection process. Whether or not the discrimination is being carried out on purpose, there is a long chain of events that the author explains lead towards students of lower social class being less likely to be accepted into an Ivy League or more selective college. For example, one of the more inadvertent ways that lower economic class students are discriminated against is by not having the opportunity to visit some of the colleges they choose. Kamenetz states that kids that do not have the money to travel to their prospective colleges are not as highly favored as students that actually visit campus. One of the many various smaller ways that low socioeconomic status can impact a person.
One way that this chain of events unfolds is that if there is a lack of education in the poor, then they are also open to being easily manipulated by political leaders, and other society members. For example, in the article ‘Loving the Poorly Educated’, the Rev. Dan Schatz, uses an example from one of Donald Trump's speeches in Nevada where he was quoted saying “We won with poorly educated… I love the poorly educated”. This is just one of the many hints that politicians will use and manipulate the less fortunate, and without any higher level of education there is a lot less that they can do to prevent being manipulated. They are viewed as an easy vote for people who appeal to their tastes, and do not take into consideration any intellectual aspects of deciding who to vote for. While this is obviously not true, it is in itself a form of classism. One of the best quotes perfectly summing up what our culture does to people that are poorly educated and near or below the poverty line is by Rev. Dan Schatz a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin and Harvard Divinity School. He says that “Our culture conflates formal education with human worth far too often. Degrees, especially from elite universities, become symbols of status and privilege, while people labeled “poorly educated” become targets for derision”.
One of the final points that can be brought up about classism is the fact that someone who is not making enough money and is being forced to work long hours, is not given as much free, creative time as someone who lives in the middle or upper class. The author of the article ‘Too Busy Being Poor’ goes into great detail on how they think that people at the bottom of the economical class are allotted much less free time than a wealthy person, saying “eight hours of work was more than good enough for centuries… Certain classes of people have been working more than eight hours a day for as long as there has been economic stratification.” It is very true that the lower class is often not spared as much time in the day and can also lead to one of the main reasons they have no time to seek out furthering their education with some form of college.
Overall it is important to know the different causes of the economically disadvantaged being discriminated against. To be able to understand why seeking an education or understanding of politics might be much different to someone who works 12 hours a day and has never had the opportunity to attend college or further their education. Our society’s culture is designed around money and education, and if you lack either, in some way or another you as well are a victim of classism.
Kamenetz, Anya. “5 Ways Elite-College Admissions Shut Out Poor Kids.” nprED, NPR. 11 March 2016. 15 January 2016.
"Too Busy Being Poor To Be Creative." The Huffington Post. HPMG News, 29 Feb. 2016. 13 Mar. 2016.
Schatz, Dan. "Loving the "Poorly Educated"" The Huffington Post. HPMG News, 25 Feb. 2016. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.
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